ELEMENTS 2021

ELEMENTS – materials from and collaborations within the Euregion - 2021

In the light of Maastricht Capital of Culture 2018 and in the latter days of the joint preparations and work for it, ambitions were fuelled to unite the cultural forces of the Euregion in a long-term collaboration. The Euregion is blessed with a dynamic chain of art museums and institutes, each with their own specific DNA and image. Using the powers of connection and imagination, these museums and institutes can reinforce and complement one another, and together tell an even bigger narrative. Lex ter Braak (former director Jan van Eyck Academy) and Stijn Huijts (artistic director Bonnefanten) have taken the helm and have transformed this Euregional cultural ambition into the new concept ELEMENTS.

The project creates a framework within which this collective narrative can experience its first large-scale interpretation and realisation. ELEMENTS sketches a new material map of the Euregion, with the assistance of the partner art and culture institutes in Dutch Limburg, Belgian Limburg and Liège. The project takes the material component of the Euregion as its starting point, in order to place the artistic achievements of the region – both past and present – in a conceptual framework. Within the project, each institute chooses an element to explore in an exhibition or other public programme. The breadth of the theme is one of its strengths, meaning that each institute can remain true to its own identity, while at the same time showing its connection to the others. It also gives all the partners a remarkable opportunity to work together and to draw the attention of a broader public – from the region and from abroad – to the interesting diversity of the art institutes in the Euregion. ELEMENTS 2021 is a pilot, with the goal of perpetuating a firm and long-lasting collaboration.

The partner art museums and institutes in 2021:
Bonnefanten, Bureau Europa, Jan van Eyck Academy and Marres in Maastricht; SCHUNCK in Heerlen; De Domijnen in Sittard-Geleen; Z33 in Hasselt; FLACC and CIAP in Genk; and Espace 251 Nord in Liège.

The complete programme ELEMENTS and the website www.elements2021.eu

• Bonnefanten: SKIN
• Bureau Europa: Love in a Mist – The Architecture of Fertility
• CIAP and FLACC: Le Paysage Ménagé
• De Domijnen: Art and New Materials: Design for a Better Future
• Espace 251 Nord: Recognitions, of Air, Flesh and Stone
• Jan van Eyck Academy: publication ELEMENTS
• Marres: Intimate Geographies
• Schunck: Landscape Works with Piet Oudolf and LOLA: in search of Sharawadgi
• Z33: Current Age. The (in)visible networks

The partners of ELEMENTS have compiled a road trip with a card to stamp, which enables and challenges visitors to visit all nine locations. So like the partner museums and institutes, visitors themselves also become an element of ELEMENTS. Information about the road trip is available at each partner location.

Publication ELEMENTS
Alongside the individual presentations and programmes for the public, all the projects are united in a publication that also functions as an exhibition catalogue. The publication ELEMENTS will be launched at the Jan van Eyck Academy on 23 June, after which it will go on sale at all the partner locations for €25.

Note for the press: for a press preview, more information and visual material, please contact Justin Livesey through pressoffice@bonnefanten.nl or 0031 (0)6 53 22 68 16.